By now our fresher medical stu­dents should have completed their first module: Fundamen­tals of Medicine, also known to everyone else as FunMed. FunMed is probably the most misleading module title in hu­man history. Sure, it’s exciting to be finally at Medical School, sitting in a lecture theatre liv­ing out your ‘Greys Anatomy’, hand-written notes, ‘day-in-the-life-of’ influencer aesthetic, but when you actually get to the nitty gritty, FunMed can somehow be equal parts dull and really quite difficult.

But then you meet your first senior, and they tell you things like how ‘FunMed was actually a breeze’, or that they ‘can’t re­member any of it’, or that you ‘shouldn’t worry about [insert any topic here]’, which breaks your heart because you’d made such beautiful annotations on your [insert any topic here] lecture that morning. Truth be told, all of what I heard about FunMed before going in was screamed at me over a drink by a less-than-sober sec­ond year during Freshers week, which is hardly a reputable source.

So, instead of putting you through that hell, I thought I’d put together some of what I wish someone had told me before during my first year – think of it as the Fundamentals of Fun­damentals of Medicine and the fundamentals of surviving first year now that it is over: Fun Fun­ FunMed!

1. FunMed is the great equaliser.

Here’s the thing with Medicine, people come from a serious­ly wide array of backgrounds, with their own levels of knowl­edge and experience in health­care. Some will be straight from school, and some will have de­grees already (and even PhDs). The entire point of FunMed is to get everyone on the same level by the time you come round to your proper Modules, so of course you’ll revisit stuff you did before Medical School. For example, if you’d done A level Biology and not Chemistry, I im­agine you’d find all the cell mi­crobiology lectures so dull you’d be falling asleep, but the Chem­istry or Pharmacology would just totally fry your brain for that af­ternoon. Take solace in the fact that everyone else in the exam was struggling too, but just not necessarily on the same topic.

At some point, every fresher will struggle on a topic in FunMed (for me it was Cancer week, I still have nightmares about p53), but rely on your mates around you and between your shared experiences you’ll breeze through. Joint revision sessions are great for this!

2. Not all of it is important, but most of it really is.

Some second years will often tell you that they forgot most of what they knew in FunMed, but this isn’t strictly true. It’s not an excuse to switch off in every lec­ture, but there is some element of truth to this. They might men­tion the Histology, or the Can­cer week, and perhaps at times they go into some very minute detail, but the truth is that I still use a lot of that information today as a basis for my mod­ules now. You’ll get a sense for what is really useful once you go through the motions, but a good rule of thumb is that the anatomy is dead useful, the physiology is a great basis for the rest of the year, and the PBLs can seem strange but it’s useful to get stuck in. Long story short, don’t listen to the rumours that FunMed isn’t important, be­cause there are some sessions that you’ll be revisiting for years to come.

And anyway, most of the con­tent will be revisited anyway, so if you struggle to realise what is and isn’t important, you’ll work it out by the end of first year.

3. Attend in per­son every day – it sucks, but not nearly as much as Qreview

You heard me – rain or shine, in sickness or in health, I would recommend going in person. Even a hungover Thursday morning is better in person than just wasting away in bed watch­ing 4 pixels in a trench coat pre­tending to be a lecture record­ing. I’m not saying Qreview is impossible to watch, but don’t pretend like it’s anywhere near as good as seeing Leslie Rob­son in the flesh. A quick coffee from The Griff, or bringing your breakfast with you are surefire ways of helping whatever kind of headache you’re trying to avoid.

And anyway, if you live in Floy­er and you’re skipping lectures, shame on you. If you rolled out of bed at 8:59 and slowly me­andered over you’d still make it in time, so you’ve got no excuse. So even though it’s tempting now that FunMed is over, keep going, if for no other reason then the confused comradery that biochemistry lectures cre­ates. You will need all the notes you can get.

4. Seniors are here to help

Over your first term, you’ll have met plenty of seniors in your various Sports and Societies, and despite them looking a bit weathered by 2 or more years of Uni, they are generally quite friendly. Ask them for advice, ask them for their notes, ask them for which club is the best at Barts – I’m sure they’ll all give very separate but equally pas­sionate answers for all three. BL Families is the best way of claiming your very own Barts parents that you can na and pester to the point of insanity, just like home sweet home, so I’d recommend getting stuck in with that. They’ll be on hand to guide you through the weird and wonderful of Barts and The London, so do lean on them if you are ever struggling. Oh, and join MESS. They put on stu­dent-led lectures, and you will 100% pass if you attend their high-yield lectures (trust me, I should know).

5. Remember to have Fun

Your time here at Barts will be defined by much more than your academics, remember that! FunMed may seem daunting at first, but it’s a real gem of an intro module that gives you more free time than you think, and this is for you to work out what you want to get out of your Barts experience. Take up a new sport? Amateur theatre or comedy? Attend a conference for a speciality you like? Run for Student President or Course Rep? Write for the student magazine (shameless plug)? You’ll have time to get in­volved with as much as you like, and I’d hugely recommend using this time to try things out of your comfort zone and meet some incredible people. You are about to be Freshers at the best medical school in the country, something you’ll only be able to enjoy once in your life.

So there you have it, how to sur­vive and make sure you’re hav­ing the most Fun in First Year now that FunMed is done. Enjoy it, it’ll pass much quicker than you imagine. I mean, I swear it was just last week I was walking around my Freshers Fayre, but now I’m in my 6th year, I have grey hairs, and my back hurts constantly….